Music has always saved me. It was always there. In my car with a cd, or listening to a radio or a concert. It was there in difficult times and even in beautiful moments. It was like a warm blanket under which I could take shelter and free my thoughts.

I always thought the music was a beauty. The one that envelops our lives and makes it unique. Notes, words, harmonies. Sounds that someone composes and puts together.

In the lab of Luigi at Dovadola

There is a small man, as Lucio Dalla (a very famous Italian song writer and composer) would say in one of his famous songs. In silence every day, for many years, he walks the few steps separating his home from his lab. A magic place made of sounds. Luigi is a lute maker, one of the few who remained in Romagna.

A son of art. His lab is a space where music still exists before an instrument produces it. Many woods, each with its own soul and its own sound, each with its own personality.

Violin souls leaning here and there. A double bass shows himself in a corner. Two odd-looking instruments with precious decorations. Chippings. Many mechanical tools waiting, almost bored, that somebody puts them in action.

A handicraft shop of other times

Luigi is a distinguished gentleman. The open smile of those who lived well a full life. His concept of work is based on fun. Every day, he comes into the shop with the idea of having fun creating something new. And it almost always succeed in this.

His hands are the most beautiful thing, in addition to his measured words that belong to an ancient wisdom. The one who wanted to build something that would stay along the time. Time. Space. Freedom.Needed to focus on work. His hands run over the wood and touch him in a caress. Time. Space. What it takes to think about new things to create and build. To what will come next. This is the music of the mind. The one that sounds and resonates. What maybe one day comes out and becomes notes, melody and words. Or maybe not. The one who saves. The one that tells the beauty.

Info

Luigi’s lab is in Dovadola, a tiny little borough the Montone River Valley. The place was governed by the Guidi noble family of Forlì. The castle, now being restored, is not opened to the public but it overwhelms the borough and still now, you can see the old walls appearing from the houses of the borough. Luigi is in the lab everyday. To find him, just ask for his name and every one will show you where to go.